The delay in the News of the World telling police about the Milly Dowler voicemail in 2002 showed the motivation was to "take credit for finding her" and sell the maximum number of newspapers, he added.

Prime Minister David Cameron said the jailing of the former Downing Street director of communications showed that "no one is above the law."

The paper's former news editor Greg Miskiw, was also jailed for six months jail for being complicit in industrial scale phone-hacking and journalist James Weatherup was handed a four month sentence, suspended for 12 months, for conspiring to hack phones.

Private detective Glenn Mulcaire Credit: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

However, private detective Glenn Mulcaire will not go to jail despite admitting to his role in the phone hacking.

The judge described Mulcaire, 43, as "the lucky one," saying it would be wrong to jail him again after he already served a sentence in 2006 when he was first convicted of phone hacking.